More Colorado businesses are dropping pot from pre-job drug tests

DENVER (AP) -- Fewer Colorado businesses have been testing potential employees for marijuana use.

A December survey by the Mountain States Employers Council finds that 7 percent of Colorado businesses over the past two years dropped the drug from pre-employment tests while 3 percent removed it from all drug tests.

Recreational consumption of pot became legal in the state in 2014.

But The Denver Post reports this doesn't necessarily mean businesses are OK with their employees using marijuana.

Mountain State Employers Council attorney Curtis Graves says employers prefer zero-tolerance on marijuana use but because there are so few available workers to fill open jobs, they can't be choosy right now.

He speculated that some employers would resume testing for marijuana if the unemployment rate rises.